That's how they got me too! I fondly remember getting a brand spanking new program called DAZstudio 1.8 absolutely free, plus they threw in a whole bunch of free content just for registering, and the rest as they say is, ... er uhm, history? ... good marketing loss leader!

DAZ stated that they found the temporary free releases to be very valuable move as it has really racked in a lot of new people into the community. The know very well that getting a big, shiny program that otherwise you'd have to pay big bucks for is creating large temptation to instead blow all that cash on content to play with.

They know it's working, they're happy, the customers are happy with their new toys, and we all live happily ever after, holding hands under the big rainbow of online store complaints... :'3

DAZ stated that they found the temporary free releases to be very valuable move as it has really racked in a lot of new people into the community. The know very well that getting a big, shiny program that otherwise you'd have to pay big bucks for is creating large temptation to instead blow all that cash on content to play with.

They know it's working, they're happy, the customers are happy with their new toys, and we all live happily ever after, holding hands under the big rainbow of online store complaints... :'3

:lol:

I spend a lot of my time in the "Just Because I Can. STUPID THREAD II"...

When they decided to make DAZ Studio a program that you'd have to pay for, then they should never had released it as beta-software. Huge mistake. First they should have released it when it was done, maybe not with all the bells and whistles, but functional. Secondly they should have written the documentation, and released the software only when this was done.

Doing things half-assed hasn't served DAZ3D anything at all. I'm waiting for the DS4.5 General Release so I can finally migrate from DS3A. Keyword; functional software. NOT beta-software!!

Beta really doesn't bother me. First of all I have no more trouble with it than plenty of programs that are no longer beta (many of which I payed as much or more for than I did when I payed for Studio by the way) and secondly I gamed for years and never once did any of the games I played ever stop being beta because the GM's never wanted to stop improving the game.

But we need basic functionality if we are using this software in a production environment. I have had the horrible experience several times in the past of saving a scene rebooting and then being unable to reopen in it in exactly the same version of daz studio. People with real deadlines and real projects can't afford that kind of lost productivity.

...I had no issue with the "beta" updates when the full version of application was 100% free. This is what got me into 3D as I had the full application and a nice set of content to play with rather than some hamstrung limited time demo where most of the features that interested me were turned off.

When S3A came out, things changed though. It was marketed as a complete (read, reasonably functional) application, but it soon became apparent we were paying our hard earned money to continue playing "beta testers". Subsequent "updates" actually made matters worse for a time instead of better, until the release of 3.1.2.32 (which was the last release of 3A before Ver 4.x was rolled out).

In Maxwell Smart's words I feel they were "that close" to making 3A a solid application when it was suddenly orphaned for the "new kid". If only they would have took just a couple more months and actually fixed the few remaining issues and finally give us the "complete" application we originally paid for. Instead near the end of it's "lifetime", ver.3 was used for "prototyping" several features that were to be incorporated into Studio4 leaving us who paid our hard earned money with a still partially broken programme that would never be finished.

Now they're already talking about S5 (and I'm not referring to Stephanie) when S4 is barely a year old and still undergoing serious "teething pains".

Daz, slow down, It's okay to not roll out a fully new version of your software every year. You don't have the manpower resources to support the workload involved like an AutoDesk or Adobe do, especially when your development team is also wrestling with getting the new site software working right. Please, can we just get one reasonably stable and "finished" version of your flagship app for once?

...I had no issue with the "beta" updates when the full version of application was 100% free. This is what got me into 3D as I had the full application and a nice set of content to play with rather than some hamstrung limited time demo where most of the features that interested me were turned off.

When S3A came out, things changed though. It was marketed as a complete (read, reasonably functional) application, but it soon became apparent we were paying our hard earned money to continue playing "beta testers". Subsequent "updates" actually made matters worse for a time instead of better, until the release of 3.1.2.32 (which was the last release of 3A before Ver 4.x was rolled out).

In Maxwell Smart's words I feel they were "that close" to making 3A a solid application when it was suddenly orphaned for the "new kid". If only they would have took just a couple more months and actually fixed the few remaining issues and finally give us the "complete" application we originally paid for. Instead near the end of it's "lifetime", ver.3 was used for "prototyping" several features that were to be incorporated into Studio4 leaving us who paid our hard earned money with a still partially broken programme that would never be finished.

Now they're already talking about S5 (and I'm not referring to Stephanie) when S4 is barely a year old and still undergoing serious "teething pains".

Daz, slow down, It's okay to not roll out a fully new version of your software every year. You don't have the manpower resources to support the workload involved like an AutoDesk or Adobe do, especially when your development team is also wrestling with getting the new site software working right. Please, can we just get one reasonably stable and "finished" version of your flagship app for once?

I loudly agree with you, KK!!

I hope the people at DAZ3D reads your post, not just once, but several times until it is fixed into their minds.

DAZ3D =/= Autodesk

DAZ3D =/= Adobe

But what DAZ3D has actually managed is to make the big studios take notice and they are adding discounts for their suits.

AutoCAD LT - save €300 if you have a subscription, €200 if you don't have a subscription. Save 20% on all softwares before July 13'th 2012. Etc. They have lowered the bar, so the small guy can have fun to.

So, in all fairness we should thank them for continuing developing their flagship, and hope Autodesk doesn't buy them out.

Now they're already talking about S5 (and I'm not referring to Stephanie) when S4 is barely a year old and still undergoing serious "teething pains".

AFAIK the only people talking about DS5 were some forum members -- nothing at all from DAZ 3D.
...really? So why is there a thread from someone at Daz asking what people would like t\o see in Studio 5?

But what DAZ3D has actually managed is to make the big studios take notice and they are adding discounts for their suits.

AutoCAD LT - save €300 if you have a subscription, €200 if you don't have a subscription. Save 20% on all softwares before July 13'th 2012. Etc. They have lowered the bar, so the small guy can have fun to.

So, in all fairness we should thank them for continuing developing their flagship, and hope Autodesk doesn't buy them out.

...somehow I fail to see 20% off software that lists for over 3,600USD (3DS) as being much of a help for us "little guys".

I for one am thankful that they moved from 3 to 4. I got some things I really love and couldn't live without now that I have them. Personally I don't want the future held up because the past wasn't perfect.

...but the past version could have been, or at least, a lot closer to "perfect". As I mentioned they even said they would do so before the next major release. Unfortunately that thread is on the old forums where the search function is currently borked.

Some of use would have just liked to get the "completed" programme we paid for instead of a permanently broken one.

I'd be totally content with a stable version of 3A, the Gen 4 figures (particularly since the release of Beautiful Bends) and Aiko3. If I want to work with weight mapping, I always have PP2012.

...but the past version could have been, or at least, a lot closer to "perfect". As I mentioned they even said they would do so before the next major release. Unfortunately that thread is on the old forums where the search function is currently borked.

Some of use would have just liked to get the "completed" programme we paid for instead of a permanently broken one.

I'd be totally content with a stable version of 3A, the Gen 4 figures (particularly since the release of Beautiful Bends) and Aiko3. If I want to work with weight mapping, I always have PP2012.

We all look for different things from the software we use. Personally I would not be willing to go back to DS 3 and I'm glad that they developed Genesis and ShaderMixer. IIRC though there was a version of Ds3 that could and was considered stable. I know that the version I used certainly had very few issues.

...the most stable version of the previous release is 3.1.2.32 which I am currently running the 32 bit version of.

There are still issues with memory management that, if they were attended to as they should have been, would have made the app more stable and reliable in 32 bit. Odd that the 32 bit version of Poser Pro 2010 with all it's additional features runs a lot more smoothly on my old system and is far less crash prone than Studfio3A

Admittedly I am not in the position to buy a lot of new content to support Genesis to the point it is just as useful as the Gen4 figures. For me they need to fix the foot posing and texture stretching issues with the Autofit tool and get the SDK up so that plugins can be updated before I would consider fully moving over.

We all look for different things from the software we use. Personally I would not be willing to go back to DS 3 and I’m glad that they developed Genesis and ShaderMixer. IIRC though there was a version of Ds3 that could and was considered stable. I know that the version I used certainly had very few issues.

Exactly. I would hate to go back now. Even something as minor as adding new surface groups in studio isn't something I would willingly do without. Nor was my version of Studio 3 unstable, just out dated.

...If you are working in 64 bit and have between 8 - 16G of RAM to throw at rendering yes, the inconsistencies in memory management and resulting file bloat can have little to no impact on application performance. When you only have a maximum of 2G available for the application due to OS limitations, (about 300MB of which is taken up just by the the Studio programme itself), it is a different matter entirely.

So for most who have been able to upgrade their systems, yes, the last release of 3A is fairly "stable". For those who are unable to, it means having to to deal with frequent "memory out of bounds" crashes.

...the most stable version of the previous release is 3.1.2.32 which I am currently running the 32 bit version of.

There are still issues with memory management that, if they were attended to as they should have been, would have made the app more stable and reliable in 32 bit. Odd that the 32 bit version of Poser Pro 2010 with all it's additional features runs a lot more smoothly on my old system and is far less crash prone than Studfio3A

Isn't it funny how different machines handle programs so differently. I suppose it is due to the fact we all have different setups and programs installed..

My machine doesn't run Poser 7 at all well despite being an i7 quadcore with 8 gbs of RAM but runs all the versions of DS reasonably well. I suppose it can be put down to it depending sometimes on what other software you are running on a machine as well as the hardware you are running. I remember reading once that some software changes some of the shared files programs use and that it can sometimes stop things from working as well due to those changes.

My wife couldn't run studio at all on her old computer. Every time she tried to do something it would crash. It worked fine on my computer which was about the same as hers only with 8GB of ram compared to her 4GB ram.

My wife couldn't run studio at all on her old computer. Every time she tried to do something it would crash. It worked fine on my computer which was about the same as hers only with 8GB of ram compared to her 4GB ram.

That's interesting to know Frank. I wonder if it was the lack of RAM or something else she had installed that caused the problem...?